1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system configured to generate a virtual printer on a client personal computer (PC), a printing apparatus, a control method for the printing system, a control method for the printing apparatus and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, networking of printers and multifunctional peripherals has been progressed, so that generally, printing is performed by a target printer or a target multifunctional peripheral via a network according to an instruction from a host computer. In this case, a printer object, which acts as a target printer, is generated on the host computer, and, when printing based on an application, a user selects that printer object to execute the printing.
On the other hand, in the case of printing via a print server, a printer object corresponding to a virtual printer on the print server is generated on a client personal computer (PC). The user executes the printing to load a print job onto the print server. Loading the print job via the print server makes possible a synthetic print document control within a system, and further, utilization of a pull-print function and an equivalent function using an integrated circuit (IC) card.
The printer object may be generated by manually inputting an Internet protocol (IP) address or the like, and automatically generated by searching the network. When the printer object is generated by searching the network, the search needs to be implemented by limiting the range of the network. Consequently, there exists such an issue, for example, that any printer existing in any different range from the host computer may not be searched for.
To solve this issue, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-296073 has discussed a method for specifying a network which a user wants to search and in which instead of the host computer, the search is performed by a Web server and its result is brought back to the host computer.
However, according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-296073, when using the print server, the user needs to understand the network in which the print server exists. Further, according to this method, the user may not confirm that the print server has a system for responding to a search and consequently, the user needs to register manually the network which he or she wished to search, whereby taking much time and labor.